Chapter 19
Seb scowled as he checked his EMF detector again, then unfolded the paper map he’d picked up from the local tourism kiosk.
The reading is stronger here than anywhere I’ve checked, but since I don’t know the expected field strength that’s not getting me enough data.
He checked his cheap compass, then the digital one in his smart watch.
Directionality seems to be a little East South East… Seb thought as he used a protractor to get the azimuth correct and then sketched a line to match the compass heading he’d just taken.
That’s the third one. If I did it right, and there’s no funky alien shenanigans at play… huh, Seb frowned at the map, noting that the lines didn’t intersect quite properly.
The resulting triangle was unfortunately fairly large, and covered a densely wooded area.
That’s gonna suck, He thought as he put his map away, and packed everything else into his inventory space before mounting his old BMX bike and started off following the trail.
Seb knew that he was taking chances, he didn’t know for certain what the invaders signal was leading to out in the backwoods, but he could be reasonably confident that it wasn’t anything good from his perspective of things.
Riding around the hiking trails was just asking for a hassle, if the searchers spotted him, or something far worse if the invaders took an interest.
Still, kids going missing this close to home wasn’t something he could overlook. If it was the invaders, he needed to know what they were up to. If it wasn’t… well, looking for the kids and their chaperones was his good deed for the day, he supposed.
He biked through the hiking trails, keeping his eyes and ears open… not so much for signs of the invaders, they were certain to be better hidden than he was likely to easily spot, no he was fast more concerned with being found by other searchers.
Getting spotted and identified would be a royal pain in the ass. He was far enough from home that he’d have to make up some kind of cock and bull story about hitchhiking with his bike, and that would bring the wrath of his mother down on his head for sure.
Not without understandable cause, mind you, but I’d still rather avoid it.
He skidded his bike to a stop as he heard voices filtering through the trees and looked around sharply, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
Unfortunately, the trees were making that hard to determine and he quietly rolled his bike into the woods and found a copse of bushes and short trees a little way off to hide in as he waited.
Sure enough, a small search group appeared, moving along the trail heading the other direction just a few minutes later.
Seb watched them with a weary sense of irritation.
Yes, because the kids you're looking for are sure to be found right on the trail.
The group didn’t bother to look more than casually off the trail, though, and soon were gone out of sight. He waited a bit longer before he pushed his bike back out of the woods and onto the trail.
Should be clear in this direction for a while now, He thought as he mounted the bike, but pulled the map from his back pocket.
Unfortunately he didn’t think anyone had maps of the trails, though it was possible the searchers had something. More likely they were mostly local hunters paired up with extra eyes, though.
Looks like the trail sort of goes in the right direction for now.
He tucked the map away, then planted his foot on the bike pedal and kicked off, following the trail in the direction the searchers had come from.
It only took him a few more minutes to see that the trail was hooking away from the area he was targeting, though, so Seb stopped and inventoried his BMX bike before pulling a canteen of water out in turn and taking a long draw.
Almost due East from here, He thought as he looked into the thick forest.
In this area, he knew that the threat of animals was minimal. Brown bears were about the worst he might run into, and they were less likely to attack than they were to run.
Probably less of a threat than normal if the invaders are operating here. Animals aren’t nearly as dumb as people. If they sense something weird, they’ll leave the area.
The woods in the area were thick, but as the trees got taller further in, the forest floor thinned out as less light was available for growth.
Seb trekked in deeper, relying on his map and the compass as primary tools since his GPS tools, while functional, didn’t have current maps to navigate against so he only used those for confirmation thatv he wasn’t completely lost.
Getting lost wasn’t really much of a worry, of course, since he could easily open a rift and wind up right back in his own bedroom… or the shed he’d put the scavaged door on after they got it home the day before.
No, getting home was easy.
It was getting anywhere for the first time that was frustrating as hell.
Nothing to do about it other than keep moving. The likely zone is just up this way. Seb thought as he started moving up a hill, weaving through the trees even as he kept his ears open.
Countless missions observed through a satellite link told him that the first indication you were in trouble was most often sound, not anything you saw. Especially in shaded areas or at night.
And it’s nothing but shade around these parts, Seb thought with weary cynicism as he kept climbing.
*****
“We are on a schedule,” The man said, walking through the space as he looked around with a critical eye. “Searchers are already moving. If we want to get this done cleanly, we need them back out to be found before they make their way this deep.”
“Understand, Sir, but we have more time than you might expect. We’ve placed our own people with the groups, they’re keeping the search in other areas until we’re ready.”
The man glowered, but finally sighed, “Very well. It’s good that you’re thinking of that, but I still want them out of here as soon as possible.”
He looked over the children and two adults that were laying on jury-rigged tables, light bathing them as they were surrounded by non-humanoid shapes.
“Yes sir. We’re very nearly ready to commence, and from there it will only be a couple hours before they’re ready to move. Relax, Sir. We have time.”
“We’ll see.”
*****
Seb dropped to one knee at the top of the hill, staying inside the treeline as he looked down into the valley that was inside the triangle he’d drawn on his map.
Lots of hectares down there, and if my target is in there… it’s invisible. Lovely.
There wasn’t much in the way of hiking trails and the like, which was likely why the area was chosen… again, assuming he had the triangulation right.
He wished he had a rifle, but then he wasn’t planning on actually engaging with the invaders…
and, honestly while he knew the basics of firearms, and safety of course, it was only pure miraculous chance that he’d managed to hit any of the invaders he’d fired at back…
back in his last memories of his last moments in the mountain.
Which makes a good point. I’m going to need firearm training, the basics will do for a while… but eventually I’ll have to find a military instructor.
He hoped not to be dealing with the invaders, or anyone honestly, from the muzzle of a rifle… but he didn’t expect to get what he hoped for.
I’ll worry about that later, though. No time for it now.
He had ‘borrowed’ his mother’s binoculars, a pair of old Bushnells from a decade or two earlier. They were clunky, but effective enough, even if they were a little out of alignment.
He scanned the valley with his eyes first, looking for anything that caught his attention.
Seb didn’t expect to find anything, he was too well aware that the invaders had very effective camouflage.
Even when they weren’t using the rifts, their technology bent most frequencies, including infrared, rendering machine based detection rather unreliable.
Humans could beat even the most advanced VIs in pattern recognition once things started getting weird. VI’s were trained on known patterns, and for anything that fell into that category, a good VI was unbeatably fast.
Once the patterns became less known, VI effectiveness dropped quickly.
The invaders used dynamic pattern disruption, making their camouflage all but undetectable to most machine intelligences.
Humans, though? Humans were built different.
If there was a pattern, no matter how faint, and you set humans to find it… they’d find it.
Conversely, though, if there wasn’t a pattern, and you set humans to find it…
They’d find it anyway.
Human senses had evolved on the savanna, primed to avoid being eaten by almost every other creature around.
If you looked into the tall grass and saw a lion, and were wrong, the worst that happened was a brief bit of panic.
However, if you looked and didn’t see a lion…
and were wrong… well, those genes tended to get cut from the gene pool right quick like.
False positives were a pain, that’s for sure.
Seb had spent over a decade riding with the soldiers on the front line, virtually of course. The recorded missions were required viewing, and he’d viewed all of them. Once he’d gotten clearance, he’d watched live as well.
Good soldiers tended to spot details long before they could properly identify them. He’d watched so many kids, chewed up by battle after battle, develop a… sense… that spoke to them in a language only they were able to properly comprehend.
In the aftermath, Seb had gotten decent at spotting the tell tales himself, but for him it took a dozen reviews of the mission video, often running frame by frame, compared to the split second recognition those kids could command.
He wished he had some of them with him now.
However, he didn’t, so Seb set out to do it the hard and slow way.
In his gear kept within the rift-space, there were more than a couple advanced cameras and he now retrieved one and started filming.
Being a packrat for the win, I guess. I really need to get some time and space so Al and I can inventory my… well, inventory. It’ll have to wait, though.
He took a slow video pan, zooming in on everything as best he could, then packed it away and moved on.
He continued the process several more times, getting different angles on everything as he made his way through the triangle he’d cut out of the map. Nothing jumped out at him, but every step through the woods was filled with tension all the same.
This wasn’t the sort of duty he was fit for, after all, and Seb could feel the weight of the possible watchers pressing down on him with every step.
So he took it slow, moved as quietly and with as little disturbance as he could manage, pausing every now and then to take videos and scan the area with his own eyes.
I’ve watched soldiers do this dozens, if not hundreds of times… my kids would have this handled already, Seb thought as he looked up to the darkening sky. Sorry boys, I doubt I’ll ever be as good as you were.
The coming evening told him that it was time to head back.
He lived in a safe area, but his mom wouldn’t take it well if he didn’t get back before dark. There weren’t any street lamps yet to judge by, but the rule of being home before the street lights turn on was universal nonetheless.
Seb took one last look around before he opened a rift point and vanished.
*****
He left his bike in the ‘clubhouse’ and closed it up before heading into the house where his mom was already cooking.
“Oh, there you are,” She said, looking over in his direction. “Did you have a good day?”
“Just biking around, mom,” Seb said with a forced smile.
“With friends?” She asked, sounding curious.
“Not today, everyone was busy I guess.”
“You’ve not been hanging around with your friends much this summer, Sebastian,” she offered. “Is everything ok?”
Seb paused, honestly he’d not even thought about that after the first week or so. What were kids going to do that he could engage with without feeling… well, pretty creepy to be honest.
“Everything’s fine, mom,” He assured her. “I just decided to do some other stuff and, well just never had the time to hang out when they did I guess. I’m sure it’ll change now that school is in.”
“Oh, of course. Just remember, friends are important, dear.”
“I know.”
And he did. He never had a lot of friends at any given time, usually no more than one or two that he would call friend, along with a bunch of friendly acquaintances… but those that were friends, they mattered.
And they’re all gone now… even if their faces are still here.
*****